Another Grandparent Visit

The Peabody of Orlando

What up, players...

So my folks were in town this last weekend for a medical conference.  I guess that's one of the perks of working in the field of medicine.  Instead of having to deal with barbarian teenagers, you get to travel around the country and stay in nice hotels.  This time around they decided to slum it out at the Orlando Peabody Hotel, which is, by all accounts, run by a mad man.


Hear me out.

I don't know if you've ever heard of this Peabody joint before, but it's a weird, weird place.  There are a couple of them spread out around the country, and they're nice hotels.  But at the very epicenter of their brand identify, at the heart of their ethos is none other than the duck.

That's right, the duck.

Evidently back in the day some ducks got into one of their lobby fountains or something, and it eventually became a daily occurence.  If there are people out there more versed in Duck Lore than I, by all means correct me and I'll edit this, but I'm pretty sure how this whole thing started.  I mean, it makes more sense than, say, the hotel's founder coming home one day as a kid and catching his mom in bed with a duck.

Though that'd be a lot better of a story... I'd see a movie about that, for sure.

Anyway, so flash forward a few generations and these ducks now have their own floor in hotel - the penthouse at the top floor.  And, as I'm told, it's a nice penthouse.  Twice a day, these frickin' BIRDS are escorted down to the lobby fountain by a designated Master of Ducks (dressed as a Victorian lion tamer, no less), via private elevator.  There, they're marched along on a red carpet to the fountain, where hordes of hotel-stayers await their arrival.  In the fountain, the ducks get to hang out and do their duck business, all the while the masses snap away with their cameras in a high pitch fervor as if these birds were the Goddamn Beatles.

I'm not making any of this up.  It's too strange to be fiction:

 

 

 So that's the legend of the ducks.  Now there are ducks plastered all over this luxury hotel, as you'll see throughout the pictures I've posted below.  My parents had a very nice, room, somewhere high up on the 4,000th floor, and accordingly had a commanding view of Orlando's resort area (void of skyscrapers, but if you look carefully you can see Space Mountain from the Magic Kingdom and Spaceship Earth from EPCOT off in the distance)

Dad and the view

 

View from their room

Looking down at the hotel pool

 They flew in during the week, so I wasn't able to hang out with them until the weekend, but Kris was able to visit a few times with the girls and take advantage of their awesome pool.

Checking out the view

Kris and Abby

Alayna and Papa

Nana and Alayna, filling buckets and getting shit done

 

Checking out the pool

 

Locked up

 

Duck wranglin'

 

Double Jazz Hands!!!

After work one day we decided to hit up a Mexican joint that was nearby their hotel, which was a nice change for us, seeing how 'eating out' for Kris and I anymore entails snatching up a few Happy Meals and letting the girls run amok in the play area at McDonald's.  We had initially looked into going to a neighboring restaurant that just opened, but it was all New Orleans food, and we didn't think the kids would eat it.  Plus, no one was in there... which is always a troubling sign.  After walking out, one of the servers literally chased down Kris and Alayna and gave the kid a balloon.

Desperation's never a good sign.

 
Hiking to the Restaurant

 
Kris and the Cannonball, outside the restaurant (with Alayna's "PLEASE EAT HERE!" balloon from the other restaurant)

 
Alayna's Balloon... soon to be lost to the sky

 
Kris and I

 
Dad and Alayna

 
Keeping the toddler happy...

 
Drinkin'

One of the greatest things about having Grandparents in town to visit is that you finally have an extra set of hands available that want to take your kids off your hands.  Sure, we have friends that offer to do the same, but they aren't required to 'love' our kids... Grandparents are.  Kris and I are always huge fans of grandparents coming down to Orlando to visit, because we know during some point and time during the visit, we're going to be able to score some serious breathing room.

Don't get me wrong, here - I love my kids.  Having Kris' legal proxy, I can say with a considerable amount of certainty that we both do.  Nevertheless, it's awesome having a break, and Dad and Cindy's conference provided us with a few days of well-needed recuperation.

Two of the nights that the parents were down here visiting, they offered to watch Alayna... which was awesome.  Not that Kris and I were necessarily home free, mind you - we still had Abby at home to contend with - but shit... one kid is so much nicer to deal with than two.

Anyway, the next day, Dad and Cindy invited us along to Universal Studos' Islands of Adventure, in order to enjoy the private evening admission that was exclusive to all the general practioners and their guests.  It had been a few years since Kris and I frequented the park, so there were a few new rides to check out.  Behold:

Leaving the Peabody...

Universal Studios Islands of Adventure

Behold.  The Seuss.

 

Seuss Landing

Kris and Godzilla...

 

On the Merry-Go-Round

Having a somewhat decent time on the Merry-Go-Round...

 

The Cannonball and Nana 

Papa and Alayna on some weird-ass Dr. Seuss ride...

Kris and Abby...

Papa and the Cannonball

Strapped into some Bizarro Merry-Go-Round ride.  Pictures would've been better, had some soccer mom opted to not step into our personal space and secure the premium vantage point shooting her own stupid kid...

 

On the Merry-Go-Round

Tired.

We were all pretty worn out after walking around Universal Studios, so we let Alayna crash another night with the grandparents (booya!).  The next morning, we drove over with all our pool gear and spent the morning and afternoon lounging by the hotel pool and having a few cocktails... something I'm a huge fan of:

 The Peabody Hotel Pool

 

 The Kiddie Pool Area

 

 

Establishing Headquarters...

 

Kids in the Pool

 

Kris and Abby

 

The Peabody

 

Nana and Abby

 

Weird Duck Statues...

 

Swimmin'

 

Waterfall-ish Pool

 

As I commented earlier, this is definitely in the top four or five hotel pools I've ever used.  Would've been a lot cooler had we not had kids with us.  As usual.

 

Glasses

 

Abby, screaming after Kris once she tried to slip out and use the restroom...

 

Shut in...

 

Snack break

 

Abby, pissed as usual...

 

Alayna, taking a break

 

 

 

The Main Pool

Dad and Cindy had to fly back to Michigan the next day, and we had to get back into our daily grind (hurrah), so after splitting a pizza back at our house and swapping a few files, normalcy at the Hough House resumed.

Weekends like this are a nice break, but holy crap are they exhausting.

- Brian